Does your camera have “BIOS-Pixel”?

(BIOS = Better Instead Of Smaller)

This is an initiative which we will use to bring up the topic of image quality on Photokina 2008. We, that are the German test lab Image Engineering, the magazine ColorFoto, the online magazine heiseFoto.de and Ringfoto, a dealer association.

To do this we will hand out 40.000 posters for free that can be photographed by the owners of digital consumer cameras under the explained capture conditions. The visual evaluation will show whether or not the camera has “good Pixels”.

This is a representation of the poster that will be/ was distributed on Photokina 2008.
If you do not have the chance to pick up your copy on the trade fare we can send it to you for a fee that covers shipping, packaging and handling (Mail to: info(ad)image-engineering.de).

Does your camera have BIOS (better instead of smaller) Pixel? You do not know? This test chart provides the opportunity to visually analyze the image quality of your digital camera.

Capture
To do this you take a picture of this test chart using your digital camera. Adjust the zoom position or the distance of your camera in a way that the gray background of the chart fills the complete image height. Depending on the aspect ration of your camera the borders will be cropped (also the logos and title will not be visible in the image). To avoid any motion blur you should use a tripod and the self timer of the camera.
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In order to judge the quality of your camera you can find images taken with several cameras as a reference. Please keep in mind that the pixel count does not say anything about the image quality of a camera. you can find 10 or 14 megapixel cameras that creat much worse images compared to a good 6 megapixel camera.

Our internal reference consumer camera is the Fujifilm FinePix F31fd which not available anymore. That is a 6 Megapixel camera that was introduced on Photokina 2006 with an image quality no other compact camera has reached until now September 2008. Here are the images for comparison taken at ISO 100 to 3200.

FujiFinepixF31fd.zip (15 MB)

The Panasonic DMC-LX3 is the first compact camera (with quite a large sensor for a compact camera) that was introduced with the manufacturer statement that the pixel count (10 Megapixel) was selected on a low level in order to increase the image quality. It is the first one that comes close to the quality of the F31fd.

PanasonicLumixLX3.zip (20 MB)

Image quality is not generally a manufacturer specific thing. This is shown by the images of the two following cameras that are also produced by the manufacturers of the reference cameras. Both show e.g. a loss of details in the green grass areas especially at high sensitivity levels (> ISO 400). FujiFilm S2000hd (10 MP) und Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37.

FujiFinepixS2000HD.zip (10 MB)

PanasonicLumixFX37.zip (12 MB)

For comparison you can download the images of two sample SLR cameras: the Canon EOS 450D with 1 megapixels and the Sony Alpha 350 with 14 megapixels. It’s amazing what a bigger Sensor can do.

CanonEOS450D.zip (17 MB)

SonyAlpha350.zip (24 MB)

Starting at ISO 400 the Sony DSC-T700 provides very limited quality.

SonyCybershotDSC-T700.zip (15 MB)

Future cameras will always be a compromise between compactness on the one hand and image quality on the other. By the way that is what limits the image quality of cell phone cameras.

After Photokina we will add more images.

This website is our contribution to inform the customers and hope that it helps you to understand the problem. Your comments are always welcome but to avoid to much Spam-Mails you have to register before being able to post a comment.